Chapter 305: Chapter 305

[Fortress Assault Victory] [Difficulty: S] [Rating: A] [Battlegroup Reward: 20.6 Million CP, 43 T3 Credits, Party Merit Earned. Rewards granted based on individual contribution.]

The Fortress Assault had granted them a big chunk of CP and Credits, a surprising number of them, but split among the hundreds of participants. Jake and his family also got messages as individuals, stating that they had earned personal rewards for their defeat of the Aspects and Champion during the timeframe of the Fortress Assault, even beyond the Divine Sparks they already received. They were delayed as well, to be handed out by their divine.

Even those on the wind continent received messages. For Fortress Assaults and Greater Rifts, it was common for many to be involved in various aspects of the battlefield or war as a whole. Many could not be present at the fortress itself during the battle thanks to their efforts, yet they were no less important. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵※𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮※𝓷𝓮𝓽

The Framework still rewarded based on their contribution to the war during this timeframe, though of course, those involved at the fortress would get the most. Even Jake got something, and he had barely arrived at the last minute, thanks to his Presence and buffs boosting his wives and more.

Jake had gotten a prompt when the monk’s spirit was destroyed, making him confident that he was in fact dead. And likely, dead for good. They would confirm it with Hestia, but a Tartarus Champion in a Frontier Sector was only protected by the Framework and their Divine if they chose to do so, and if they met another more important requirement: they fit the criteria to be protected by the Framework, following the same rules members of the Alliance would have to follow.

And something told Jake a bunch of hungering ghosts stitched together to make the nameless monk’s spiritual body did not fit the criteria. Hestia had told Jake that more often than not, in almost a hundred percent of cases, the Evil Divine did not protect their champion’s lives. It was because they often created and empowered them using sacrificial rituals, which would exclude them from its protection.

It also meant that the Framework wouldn’t aid them in making projections or avatars. While the monk probably could have multiple bodies through his own means at the Fourth Tier, entering a Framework-sanctioned challenge where his Tier was reduced would mean he entered with only a portion of his soul’s overall strength, essentially.

Which would mean he would be less effective. And with how important maintaining control over a bunch of ghosts filled with hunger and resentment was with that ‘spiritual bag’ Jake saw, that was likely too much of a handicap.

Still, Jake hoped Hestia had answers. Or that she could have answers without them waiting. While in Conquest, how much she could say was limited.

Berri looked rather upset, shouldering her axe. “I can’t believe he threatened our babies. We should bring him back to life so we can kill him again. I’m not satisfied!”

Jake let out a breath. “That was…dangerous, perhaps the most in danger we have been in. Let’s get this stuff over to the nearest Nexus Node. I don’t think I can rest until we turn this thing in. Until we turn all the stuff in, for that matter.”

The mysterious shears were still connected to Pyros as a chain, with the handle linked by a cuff that barely fit through the finger hole. He didn’t dare touch the shears directly. Transporting them was like carrying radioactive material, or a highly toxic substance.

Only because Pyros was a Divine item that matched it had he been willing to touch the shears with it, and there was no way he was bringing any of this stuff inside his Refuge.

Fhesiah pouted as she was scanning the bags with her Divine sense, holding each one up to her eyes one at a time as well. “Aw, but do we have to turn it all in? There are so many interesting things in these sacks! Especially the one Ira nabbed.”

She was running her hand along Ira’s body, who presented its snout within the physical plane for her to pet. She continued, “This one saw how hard I tried to get Avaron and Cassius’s sacks, and thought to nab the monk’s just before you blasted him! Good job, Ira.”

Fhesiah added with a grin, “And I was able to use a special method, which locked it in stasis. A lot of these items can unravel when those they are bonded with die. I have to keep feeding this Demonic Rune with Qi, but it’s just within my capabilities to keep up with.”

Bloodberri and Sati shared their sentiments, joining in rewarding their little many-dimensional protector. Jake chuckled, and ran his fingers over Ira’s snout too. “Ira was a lot of help in that fight. You helped protect us all. Thank you.”

Sati had the sacred bells, which were around his waist, surrounded by Qi, inspecting them from where she lifted them from the ground. They were scorched and partially melted from Jake’s intense blast. “These appear to be safe, never having malevolence or taint within them from the beginning. But, damaged as they are… I’m not sure if they have any value left.”

Fhesiah smiled. “Loot is loot! I’ll take that one; you never know what we might learn from it, even damaged as it is.”

Jake narrowed his eyes on Fhesiah, who was getting more adventurous by the moment with the spatial sacks. “You’re sure they’re not trapped? If you touch any of that, it might explode or do something even worse, like destroy the evidence. The monk is even more mysterious and powerful than the vampire you faced.”

The vampire had a few items that were booby-trapped, but she had been able to overcome them with her methods learned from the array master…that tried to kill her. Jake did not find it as likely for such a powerful entity to exceed her original strength by such a significant margin.

Fhesiah sighed as she put the three sacks away, but she had a special box to place the bells into, that sealed them. “Fine, you’re right. Karma is too mysterious even for me. It wouldn’t do to be too greedy. Besides, at this point, it’s all evidence, as you said.”

Nessa said, [To the victor goes the spoils in Champion and Divine Descendant battles. These are all evidence, true. But we should get them back or something of equivalent value eventually. They may charge us to purify the item or circumvent the protections for us, though.]

Fhesiah lit up at that. “Ah, okay, I guess I can live with getting the items eventually! What about the betrayer’s items, though?”

[That I can’t know for sure, but the trial will likely swing things to reward their items to us.]

Avalara looked over the skull and the stakes in the ground, still emanating a bit of a vile aura. “What about these things? It seems risky to even touch them, let alone move them.”

Jake sighed, as he altered Pyros to have more links, and wrapped them with the chains. He made a large loop for carrying the items, and made sure that the items were not quite touching but dangling from them. Thankfully, Pyros could be modified just like he could carry things with his pyrokinesis. “I will carry them with Pyros as well then.”

Fhesiah said, “Might be for the best. They were originally in Cassius and Avaron’s sacks, but keeping them apart now that they put all that evil energy into them is a good idea. I can still feel the taint just wafting off of them.”

Berri said, “So who’s going to carry these betrayers? They’re still alive, so that’s a no thank you from me. Only Jakey, his wives, and children can ride me. And for Winter’s Giving. And–”

Avalara interrupted, “I can take care of it.”

Her vines wrapped around the two men, creating bands of the Celtic knot pattern all around them. Black and green vines bound their arms, legs, and even their mouths and eyes, and strapped them to her back.

The party traveled as a group, deciding that, as usual, the greatest safety was in numbers. They could have done some portals and reverse summons and summons, but the contraband was so mysterious they would rather not leave it to chance on whether it was safe to bring it through his abilities.

It took longer, and it was nerve-wracking as they stayed vigilant for hours, but they eventually made it back to the earth continent’s HQ. Thanks to the open investigation, Nessa and Ophelia had visited the node in Cloudhaven to send a message to Administrator Kintrel and Divine Tyr, and were able to hand in Calix’s pouch while they were at it. Apparently, the Nexus Node was sufficient for the pouch, but the other items were far more risky.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

They confirmed that this was the correct path to handle the situation, as well–bringing the contraband items into their Refuge was more than a little risky, they said. Just about any action could be a trigger to the item’s failsafes, and so they needed to be careful with how they manipulated the items.

Jake summoned Ruby, Ophelia, Nessa and Tanda during their hours of travel, after they had finished with healing and handling the issues within Cloudhaven. The wind elves and sylphs would take some time to recover, and the Ravenwolf Tribe took back to the skies, to clear more Rifts near the Greater Rift and prepare to assault it.

Valtor reported that the conquest progress had only moved a few percent in the Alliance’s favor from all the work closing Rifts they had done, and the Fortress Assault victory. Hearthtribe’s allies had only just arrived in the last day, and their numbers had been decreased from their PvP battles upon arrival. They had only barely counteracted whatever the Obsidian Blades had done to allow so many Rifts to spawn in the first place, and all the deaths from the storm.

However, Valtor thought with the PvP situation unraveling and the storm gone, their progress on all continents would be much more rapid. With their array flags already set up, soon they would be using their mana fonts to take out Rifts safely with even smaller groups, making even faster progress.

Eventually, the family reached the Alliance HQ of the earth continent. It was late at night by the time they arrived, and the streets of the stepped pyramid earthen city were rather quiet. The Alliance HQ was a tall, multi-level keep structure up against the cliff face.

In front of the HQ was a plaza, where the main Nexus Node was located, the large octagonal obelisk waiting for them.

As they arrived at the node, to Jake’s surprise, a bubble of concealment covered them all, before Tyr appeared–as a mental projection. Jake didn’t feel much or any divinity or spirituality coming from him. He was in his Nordic armor like before with his shield, the man looking ready for battle.

“Father!” Nessa smiled, happy to see her father, and thankfully, confirmed that it was truly him by using some of her Nascent Divine Essence. It was a scary prospect potentially handing over all this evidence. Just what if Loki convinced them somehow to hand him everything through his trickery? But they knew if there was anyone who they could count on for this, it was the Divine Tyr, and Nessa could see the truth.

The god of war and justice was grinning as Avalara brought out the two prisoners from behind her. “Good to see you once again, Daughter, and Clan Hart. The captives are still sleeping?”

Avalara chuckled as she delivered the two men at his feet with her vines. “My bindings are keeping them drained of life force, making them weak and comatose.”

Tyr put his hands on the men, and teleported them away. “Two betrayers, captured. Excellent work, everyone. Now I have those two to question.” He grinned, satisfied with this outcome.

Fhesiah lifted one of the three sacks. “Is questioning them that important? With all this evidence, I’d think that hardly makes a difference.”

Tyr shook his head. “It can never hurt to have too much evidence when you have Divine like Loki who seeks to wriggle out of the crimes arrayed against him. Not only that, but this is likely far from their only crime, you realize. The list we have suspicions of, but never proof, is quite long.”

Jake asked, “What’s going to happen now?”

“For now? Not much, though Hestia will want to meet with you in your Refuge shrine at your earliest convenience to give you a debrief on your battle with the monk. It will take us some time for us to review the items you captured. Determining how deep this treachery goes and who we have evidence against before we go after the true betrayers will take time. But I can tell you already, the skull and the stakes, and the shears you hold…they are true Divine-made items, the shears Divine-grade at the Fourth Tier. Whoever made these items will be penalized heavily at a minimum and, at a maximum, completely restricted, and much of their Territory taken away. They will not be getting just a slap on the wrist if I can help it.”

Tanda’s tail was wagging a little, but she was exhausted, Jake could tell. She asked, “What about those we’re at war with?”

“We don’t want the betrayers to know that we have them dead to rights yet. Radiant Glory and the Obsidian Blades and their subguilds: their PvP is now suspended, given that it will be easily known that they attacked others–some members were even sacrificed to empower these two, and some natives witnessed it. As for anything else, it may be best if Fhesiah continues to work with the tokens she has found and gathers a little more evidence before we do more than that.”

Fhesiah was a bit surprised. “You’d like me to? Why not you?”

“Timing is critical. I can’t work on these items for nearly a week until they arrive where something more reliable than my projection can examine them. I’m certain you can make important progress in those few days because you have your people landing on other worlds soon. The best evidence is about to show up on the tokens, is it not? Moreover, you have some trustworthy help on the way that will be here shortly.”

Jake frowned. “Here, on The Burning Steps? Who?”

“Baron Jantaka and his truth-seekers had already been on the way for a few days now. He…got rather angry with Loki and Ares for their obvious interference of justice and the truth, regarding the questioning of the criminals. Some of them even have experience with karma and fate items, so they could be a big help when it comes to this.”

Fhesiah was impressed. “I will continue to work on them immediately then. They’re safe to bring into our Refuge?” She brought out a number of them from her own cosmos sack, including the special box. “And how about this item, the sacred bells?”

Tyr swept over them with his gaze. “I can’t say for certain the bells are a hundred percent safe as I am, but if my daughter doesn’t see anything extra in their nature, then it should be fine. As for the tokens, you may want to work on them within the HQ here instead. To actually hear anything from them, you would need to remove protections from your Refuge.”

Fhesiah looked over the tokens with Nessa, and said, “Cassius’s and Avaron’s seem…much more complex for me to work with. If I can unravel them, I may be able to…fake some transmissions.”

Blood grinned. “Oh, I like that idea. Let’s get ourselves a list of their alliance’s guild leaders, and see what kind of information we may be able to fish out of them.”

Jake chuckled when he realized something. “We barely got started with the guild war, and it’s already almost over–I suppose we still have to face their allies for now.”

Tyr nodded. “Thanks to the evidence Fhesiah already submitted, we have been taking extra measures–in secret. The Core Territories are going to shift as a result of all of this. It will take some time before you see results in either effort.” He looked over to Fhesiah. “Now, for the dangerous sacks. You’re a true treasure, dragoness. That you could safely recover these items under their noses might be the biggest boon of all.”

Fhesiah grinned as she handed them over, and one by one, Tyr seemed to inspect the contents with his senses before surrounding them with some dense mana and runes Jake could not identify, before they disappeared.

Tyr frowned. “Curious items, to be sure. I wish I were here in the flesh to inspect them at my maximum. I did my best for now, but there’s no real other option since this world is still in contest. Their plan was vicious, it seems, but I’ll have to wait to confirm it.”

Jake rattled Pyros, the several objects held in his gem-like flaming chains shifting. “What about these?”

Tyr walked over, then inspected the shears more closely. “Such a terrifying item, it certainly displays power far above its Tier, even while limited on this world. I can’t tell how it was made or how it entered this world at all, but I think I understand what it does. By investing enough Divine Energy or spiritual power, it allows them to cut the Framework’s karmic thread, and any Divine’s. Can you see what else, Daughter? Really look at it. Use your Nascent Divine Essence if you must.”

Nessa frowned as she looked over it. Then she got a serious look, before her spirituality increased. Her eyes lit white as she looked at the item, and it took her a minute, before the blood drained from her face. “Its nature is like a kaleidoscope, ever shifting and numerous, its nature beyond what I can understand. But… for brief moments, I could see some things that don’t quite belong, threaded within, but a few that seem relevant stood out. Trickery and deception. Violence and conflict. Mercantilism and thievery, among so many others, though the biggest thing that held those threads together, was sacrifice. This…” She paused, at a loss for words at how terrifying this item was, and how many different Divines’ essences were contained within.

Tyr sighed. “It’s as I thought. Loki, Hermes, and Ares gave of themselves… so they could cut those of their own blood loose and hide them from sight, among so many others. As powerful as this Divine item no doubt is, limited down to the Second Tier, it could never accomplish what it appeared to do.”

He then reached for the shears–carefully. The spirituality surrounding Tyr increased for a moment, before he placed his hand on the handle–and they disappeared into motes of light as well. Tyr then tapped the four stakes one by one, the same thing happening, before his hand paused on the skull.

“Rather mysterious, this one. I dare say it might have been present on this world before the Conquest began, but did not originate here. There is no record of its entry during the Contest, unlike most of the other items. This says a lot about just how much they have colluded with the enemy, and just how confident they were that either they were going to win their fight, or that the monk was going to remove all of the evidence. The good news about obtaining this item is two-fold. With this, I can certainly penalize Tartarus, and second, we can add it to the list of protocols for the Framework to search prior to beginning a contest. This exact method will never work again.”

Tyr touched the skull, and it disappeared as well, and then he walked back to the Nexus Node and turned around to face them once more.

“I have everything we need for now. Once we’ve reviewed the items, determined their purpose, and are finished with using them for evidence, we should return those not deemed too dangerous to you. So now, I will take my leave. Do be careful and vigilant, but you should also get some rest, too, Clan Hart. You have earned it.” He turned to Nessa. “You’ve done beautifully, my daughter. I’m proud of you.”

Nessa floated over and embraced her father, and with a grin, the god disappeared in motes of light.

Jake let out a breath. “I’m glad to be rid of that stuff. Let’s head home and get some rest.”

Ophelia was nearly dead on her feet, and had sent Valora home the moment they had arrived back in the city. “You said it. If possible, I’d like to rest an entire day. I’m exhausted down to my bones.”

With the Alliance HQ right there, they entered inside and went through their Refuge portal. Finally, after days of battles and investigations, they would get some rest.